Choppy DVD Playback On Laptop - Argh - Help!

I have a Gateway laptop that will not play DVD's correctly. It has an AMD 64 3400+ mobile CPU, 512 megs o' ram, and 64 megs of shared video ram via ATI 200M.

DVD playback is choppy and surges. Both sound and video. CD music playback is fine. I have been trying to pinpoint the cause of this. Is it an actual problem somewhere or is a laptop of this spec just not capable of playing back DVD's smoothly?

I have fiddled with tons of settings. Resolution, closing down background programs, trying different viewing programs to run the DVD, etc. Nothing seems to help. Is there a specific setting somewhere I need to investigate? I am about to try the UMA frame buffer setting in BIOS.

Any advice or input is welcome.

Thanks.

 

Has it always had problems with DVD playback, or is it a recent problem? Is it a new laptop (less that 6 months old)? If it's fairly new, return it to the place of purchase. I've played DVD's on PC's running Celeron or Pentium II CPU's at 300mhz with 128mb RAM on Windows 98. Your PC should play any DVD movie just fine. It could be a firmware issue with the DVD drive, but not likely. Update your video drivers, and if that doesn't work, go to the place of purchase. Hopefully you didn't buy it online or from EBay. Personally, I've had lots of assorted problems with Gateway laptops. I work as a tech in an independent PC store, and it seems that Gateway has been mis-informing people about their laptops and their overall quality has gone in the dumper. I'm not trying to bring you down or ridicule you, I'm just telling you what I know from experience......

hd2k

 

Hopperdave -

I was shopping for a cheap laptop at the time. I needed it for a very specific reason and it fit my needs fine. Although the case is cracking at the LCD joint. My guess is that once that goes the computer will be useless. Unless of course I spend hundreds of dollars to get it fixed. The ethernet card took a dump on me too.

The computer is about 15 months old. I purchased it at Best Buy. And don't sorry, no offense taken regarding the Gateway purchase. I did not need a top of the line mode. HOnestly, I did expect a little more from Gateway.

Halo -

Thanks for the tips. I will give all of those a try. I have not updated the ATi drivers. I know Nero is on there, but I am not sure which version. I know Nero can be train wreck.

 

Thanks for the advice - but no joy.

I uninstalled Nero, set the DMA channels, updated the video drivers, etc. Still choppy. It is almost like the drive is surging. Any other suggestions?

 

I know this answer will not help, but I can't remember every trying a DVD with it. So as for that answer, I am not sure.

Yes, it is XP patched to the fullest. How to tell which codec pack is installed? The laptop came with Nero, which I uninstalled. I can remove the current codec and install the one you sugguested. How do I locate and uninstall the current codec?